


Potential

by Cuda (Scylla)



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: But it's Yusuf so of course it's poetry, Commitment is weird when forever could mean forever, Falling In Love, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani is an Incurable Romantic, Joe's Perspective, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:49:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25583899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scylla/pseuds/Cuda
Summary: Short character sketch, centering on Joe. It's a common belief among immortals (basically Booker and Andy, but that's almost half the population these days) that romantic love is temporary by its very nature. Wouldn't the same relationship get stale after a few centuries? Joe votes no, but of course, he's an incurable romantic.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 21
Kudos: 149





	Potential

Joe wondered once or twice if they would grow stale. Once in a century, maybe, because a slow decade allowed them a comfortable routine. A slow decade where they watered the seeds of a garden, and not a rebellion. The quiet, undocumented edges of history are memorable for their luxury of restlessness.

In those moments of doubt, Joe thinks now, he lacked imagination. But he was younger then (so much younger), with only the dust of Cairo and Jerusalem on the bedrock of his life. But he would learn, and in the accumulation of lessons, Joe developed a fine appreciation for change.

Andy prefers 'entropy.' Joe finds the word inaccurate. Andy sees the world as a series of failing systems; herself one of them. Perhaps one day all things will die, even Nicky and himself. But that end is unknown. If they are as much in the middle of things as they seem, change is the present, full of potential for good and bad and simple difference.

Nicky still watches him with Nicolo's fine eyes, as he did at the start. But he is not the same. A man changed and seasoned by time and use, like good steel. Like the sword on Joe's hip, as much art as it is lethal. Sad eyes are kind now, fixed on the present instead of past loss or a fearful future.

A long time ago, they tried to be apart. It was Joe doing the asking, in some young fear of losing what he desired most. Lonely misery was its own lesson, and when they met again, Joe's doubts were dust. Another layer of sediment in their lives, now intertwined. No fire could mask this heat. Mere novelty could no longer be conflated with love. Nicky missed him, and told him, with hungry hands and gray eyes that devoured.

Joe pledged himself after that brief separation, when his first name was familiar to his ear and his father's language comfortable in his mouth. Nicky said he had a beautiful soul and made love to him, in the tall grass of a pasture as the sun vanished over the edge of the world.

They would not be parted again. The Light, the Universal Intellect, the power that kept the breath in their noses when their bodies were broken - some greater wisdom than theirs bound them together. Joe would embrace it, embrace joy, and serve this love all the days they had left.

Joe could not get tired of Nicky. There was nothing like him. Nothing in the world like being loved, like being touched with hands that knew him, hands that saved him; hands that reached for his in the dark. Joe remembered the violence in them, so long ago that it belonged among the Once Upon A Times. The violence in Nicky's touch then was a stranger, born apart from Joe in the scant thirty years before they met. Now Joe feels a new certainty, a new kindness. He knows both from their birth. Nicky accumulated his own lessons in their shared past, traded all his old doubts for love and hope. This precious witness is worth all, and more.

Love is changed too, of course, like rock worn by wind. Not lessened, but honed. Etched into its truest curves. Time sculpts it into something that transcends truth as they settle into, and then discard, life after life after life.

And Nicky's hand is there, under Joe's. Meeting his. Braving the unknown potentials of change together.


End file.
